Here is today’s list of tips on how to get more visitors to come to my website. This list is more or less in order of importance. Well, importance might not be the right word. But, these are all things that the Kardashians hire talented people to do for them. So, pay attention.
Tom, how do I get people to come to my website and see all the cool stuff I’m putting up?
1. Add interesting content to your website as frequently as possible. What separates the champs from the scrappers is frequency. Successful people just produce a heck of a lot more of whatever they are producing. One trick is to realize that a post is not an “article.” A post is 3 or 4 short 2, 3 sentence paragraphs on one topic, plus a nice picture. Spread your other ideas over several posts. I’m actually violating this right now. Darn.
2. Get your name “in the papers.” Do public appearances. Podcasts, video, radio, TV. This requires being an annoying presence to some, but who cares about them. Toot your own horn.
3. Have more popular websites link to your website. I have seen what a mention or link from NYTimes or a major news outlet can do for traffic, and it is awesome. Robbing a bank can get you this notoriety temporarily. But try to think more long-term. Unless you plan to write that great prison novel.
4. Have changing home page content. Something new for visitors and Google to latch onto. Show those latest posts on your home page. Don’t use licensed images without a license. What goes on Wix, stays on Wix.
Credit: Joshua Woroniecki
5. Enable visitors to subscribe to new posts. This is semi-automatic. You write a post, and when you Publish, an email ‘teaser’ is sent to all your subscribers. They need to go to your website to read the whole post. Pro: The post doubles as a post on your website and as an email blast to subscribers. Con: You don’t get the same in-depth reporting about “opens” like you’d get on MailChimp or Constant Contact.
6. Enable visitors to sign up for email blasts. Create and send email blasts as often as you can. Pro: Great for sending well designed emails about events, excellent reports on opens. Con: More work than subscribe to posts.
7. Use an automated posting app for social media – Write once, schedule to appear on multiple social networks. Because some of your audience is on Twitter and some is on Facebook and some is on Instagram. And never the Twain shall Mark my words.
Credit: Matteo Panara
8. Post on social media as often as you can. Use the exact address (URL) to a post on your website. Stick to a schedule. Fall off the treadmill. Get back on the treadmill. You are supposed to interact with other peoples’ social media. But, that is just asking for too much.
9. Determine how many of these tasks you can handle, and stick to a routine. Don’t worry about the other stuff too much.
10. Realize that a one person operation, busy creating the reason for all this promotion, can’t do it all. No “Social Media Guru” can understand what makes your topic unique as well as you can. The website owner needs to take on as many of these tasks as they can, and decide which tasks to entrust to other people. All within a scenario where cost maintains some reasonable balance to benefit.